Megan Murphy: Sun Valley Center For The Arts

Water
Sep 13-Nov 5

Life source, rejuvenator, destroyer, purifier. Water is vital to all life. Its abundance in parts of the world and scarcity in others is rapidly making it the world’s most important commodity.

For those of us who live in the American West water plays a role in every aspect of our economic and social life. Communities have long been settled near the source. Traditional industries from ranching to agriculture to mineral extraction are dependent on water. As the West shifts toward economies based on tourism, water and the places where it presents itself shape destinations. Recreational activities—boating, fishing, skiing, golf, hiking—all rely on water. Water in its winter form drives and shapes the foundation of our life in the Wood River Valley. Without snow our community would be quite different. Many contemporary artists are investigating their own feelings and ideas about water: some exploring its beauty, some its power, others its transformational qualities.

Visual Arts, Ketchum

Each artist has been selected to convey some sensation or idea that is universal about our relationship to this essential juice. Jan Aronson’s precise and considerate drawings of water speak to its rhythm, its visual patterns and its meditative qualities. Megan Murphy’s drawings are studies of water, place, and the West. Each piece is printed with a photograph of Silver Creek’s water and layered with transfer lettering. The text reflects on the environmental problems happening in the water. A list of the chemicals, golf courses, household water usage, and warming global temperatures are interwoven with the stories, history, and irony that Silver Creek represents. Kate Bright is a contemporary British artist whose paintings on water capture the wonder of this resource that holds many different forms from sparkling nodules of snow to sheets of liquid glass. Anne Neely’s colorful paintings focus on water as a powerful source above and below the earth’s surface. Her layered images speak to the flowing layers that move unseen underground in aquifers and lakes. She uses water to emphasize how natural systems define place. Dawn DeDeaux made her watermark and mold sculptures in response to the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. DeDeaux’s sculptures are elegant but powerful reminders of water’s fury and a community’s loss. Basia Irland focuses on the ecology of water. For this exhibition, she has created an installation and a project, A Gathering of Seeds; Big Wood River, Idaho, in which valley residents are invited to make clay fish embedded with native riparian seeds that will be released into the Big Wood River at the end of the exhibition.

Teen Workshop on Water
Sat, Sep 11, 12-4pm
The Center. Ketchum
$10 pre-registration required
See description in Class section

Special Evening Exhibition Tours
Thu, Sep 23 and Thu, Oct 7, 5:30pm
Enjoy a glass of wine while you tour Water with The Center’s curators and gallery guides.

Free Exhibition Tour
Tue, Sep 28, 2pm and by arrangement
Trained gallery guides offer new insight into the artwork on display in free tours of our exhibitions.
Favor de llamar al Centro de las Artes para arreglar visitas guiadas en español.

Gallery Walk
Fri, Oct 8, 5-8pm
Join us for drinks and appetizers and make a clay fish to contribute to Basia Irland’s installation for Water.

Family Day: Water
Sat, Oct 23, 3-5pm
Free at The Center, Ketchum

Concert & Residency:
Sam Lardner & Barcelona
as part of the multidisciplinary project Water
Friday, October 29, 6:30pm
NexStage Theatre, Ketchum
See description under Performing Arts Series

Lecture: Maude Barlow
As a part of the multidisciplinary project Water
Thu, Nov 4, 6:30pm
Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum
See description under Lecture Series

Closing Ceremony: A Gathering of Seeds; Big Wood River, Idaho
Sat, Nov 6, 10am
The Center, Ketchum

Join us for a closing ceremony for Water. Artist Basia Irland will speak about her project and then guide participants as we release clay fish embedded with native riparian seeds into the Big Wood River. Made by Wood River Valley residents during the course of the exhibition, these fish will help restore plant life along the river’s banks. Irland will also release ice books, carved books containing text written with seeds, into the river as part of a celebration of the Big Wood River and its importance to our valley. Coffee, juice and pastries will be served.

Source/Resource: Ranching and Water in the West
The Center, Hailey
September 17 – November 12

Source/Resource pairs Ben Ditto’s photographs of water usage on 21st-century ranches in Utah and Nevada with photos drawn from the archives of the Idaho State Historical Society of 20th-century ranching and irrigation in Idaho. The exhibition explores the vital role water plays in sustaining ranching in the West and the way water has been managed as a resource over the last century.